Week 122, Backup: the new Rock n Roll

If Mississippi John Hurt had worked in IT then maybe his song Stack O' Lee* would have come from a different angle.

Stack o' tapes told Billy
I can't let you back up to disk
For that's my life you're a takin'
And I won't let that go amiss
So lay down Billy in the corner
'Cos what you gonna do ain't proper
This bad forty-four
Is gonna byte you down to size
etc...

However he didn't, and it didn't, so it ended up like this - which to be fair is clearly a much better song:


Police officer, how can it be?
You can 'rest everybody but cruel Stack O' Lee
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee
Billy de Lyon told Stack O' Lee, "Please don't take my life
I got two little babies, and a darlin' lovin' wife"
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee
"What I care about you little babies, your darlin' lovin' wife?
You done stole my Stetson hat, I'm bound to take your life"
That bad man, cruel Stack O' Lee
With the forty-four
When I spied Billy de Lyon, he was lyin' down on the floor
That bad man, oh cruel Stack O' Lee
"Gentleman's of the jury, what do you think of that?
Stack O' Lee killed Billy de Lyon about a five-dollar Stetson hat"
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee
And all they gathered, hands way up high
At twelve o'clock they killed him, they's all glad to see him die
That bad man, oh, cruel Stack O' Lee



But we'd still have this stack o' tapes to dispose of whichever way it went.**

* Also known as Stagger Lee, Stagolee, etc, etc.
** Around two thousand LTO2 and LTO3 tapes.

For official/internal use only:
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